Social Media and Narcissism

[Ghoulia Yelps]

Going back to the OP, definitely. Social Media certainly exacerbates narcissism, if someone has a weakness that way, it will only make them worse. If you look at my other posts I talk about my problems with another INFJ who was sucked into this mindset and became a very unpleasant person. He even got involved with a weird online relationship with a Romanian woman who did little else but post selfies everyday for him to like and comment on!

 

[Trifoilum]

Sorry if this topic has been beaten to death, but I'm curious what you think. Do you see a connection between social media and the rise of narcissism? My evidence is only anecdotal, but I've noticed many narcissistic traits emerge in people as their use of social media grew. I don't know if this just means someone's FB or Instagram becomes a "narcissism safe zone" and they are otherwise normal in their offline lives, or if they actually become more narcissistic due the culture of selifies and consumerism embraced by things like instagram. What are your thoughts on this topic? Feel free to elaborate and take the issue beyond just the questions I've posed here. Any insight appreciated, thanks

(with the understanding that narcissism here =/= Narcissistic Personality Disorder..)

No.

What social media do is just open the window for us so that there are no geographical distance.
Before this, we already have people who brag. People who are self-obsessed. People who are vain.

But they are mostly limited in the people around them.

Yes, I am sure that the trend grows. People take more selfies than in the past. But a lack of selfies does not mean they aren't vain or a braggart. Or that they aren't looking for people's approval and adoration.

It's just that selfies and loot pics and such are socially acceptable methods.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

Perhaps narcissism is more rooted in the parenting techniques a child is exposed to, than the activities they participate in as an adult.

Social media just enables a larger platform for narcissistic tendencies.

 

[invisible]

I see a lot of people's selfies get tremendously rewarded. Even my own very few profile pic selfies get rewarded more than far more meaningful personal achievement related stuff I post, and I'm not remotely any kind of popular person or desirable social connection. A guy I used to work with posts heaps of selfies. He has big white teeth, blue eyes, lots of hair. I knew him years ago and he was very cute back then, he has really lost the sweetness he had back then. But it always surprises me how many likes he gets on his selfies. I'm like, we just saw your big white smile in a different picture ten minutes ago - do we really need more of this? The approval keeps pouring in.

But I think it's mainly just like an outcome of a fluff culture rather than true narcissism. Buzzfeed is one of the biggest "news" sources in the world. People aren't really interested in anything that means anything. They just want superficial fluff that gives them the sense of achieving something or processing something, without the actual effort that goes into legitimate achievement.

 

[koizora]

Social media is the place for people with narcissistic tendencies, in my opinion. Facebook has been annoying me for ages now, I'm seeing tons of selfies (especially from girls trying to make their lips look bigger than they actually are..) that get tons of reactions from people who glorify them. Yes, glorifying. If you use 20 heart-eyed emoticons and exclaim a certain person is perfect, then I wouldn't call it just a normal compliment.

Don't get me started on Youtube stars as well- even though I do understand if a Youtuber has a lot of views/subscribers if he or she shares a lot of useful information, or entertains his or her audience. But I will never understand the Youtube stars who only give their opinion on stuff and talk about their life and what they bought at the bakery that day. Never.

 

[Night Owl]

Yeah, lol, at the bathroom selifes. I can't help but laugh when I see some chick all glammed up...with a toilet in the immediate background.

The mirrors are also always dirty. Look, and you will see pus stains from that months pimple popping. It's gross, and I hate to point out such a gross reality, but it's true. Advice to all narcissists on the web: wipe and clean before you selfie.

 

[Rcs6r]

Cracked.com has a great podcast episode that talks about the rise of narcissism in America:

Why Narcissism Is Our National Dissorder
(Alt title: Why Donald Trump's Rise Proves Americans Are Narcissists)

If you go back one hundred or even fifty years ago to ask kids what they wanted when they grew up, they'd say they wanted to have families and to have good jobs. Now when you ask that question to kids the resounding answer is, "to be famous." Not to be a famous actor or a famous musician or athlete, just to be famous. And in our culture being famous is an easy reality. There are real Twitter and Vine and Instagram celebrities, but in a way we're all the star of our own curated reality show, broadcast over Facebook updates and Snapchat stories.

We have a word for this kind of self-aggrandizing behavior-narcissism-but sometimes we use that word to mean "asshole" or "jerk" when there's an actual clinical meaning behind it that's much more complicated than the informal insult. Narcissism is a diagnosable condition that statistically only 1% of the population has. But why does it seem people are becoming more self-obsessed, more vain, more arrogant?

 

[sassafras]

I do agree that, as a culture, we have definitely become more self-absorbed and egocentric thanks in part to the huge influence of social media and I think those that have more narcissistic tendencies are really in their element here. However, there's also a flip side to turning people into social media brands: the loss of identity. People's desperate search for social approval has turned social media into a social, political and cultural echo chamber. I think that in itself creates a space for plenty of ego and identity-disorders, not just narcissism.

 

[BoringNotBornIng]

There is a point in what are you all talking, but I think that all of you understand that the more our society develops the dumbest people become. That's why social media was done. But without that I would not become a programmer and I wouldn't make sites like ig auto like. I am web developer, people are paying money to be promoted and to gain likes comments and features on istagram, and all of this is for real, all the likes they are looking for they are gaining. They don't care about what they have to pay to become popular. I don't like our society of the people we are surrounded, but without them, smart people like us wouldn't make money.

 

[Morticia D]

I thinking we need to make a distinction between true narcissism, anxiety driven over-focus on the self, and pathological narcissism of two subtypes: stable and unstable, with the later being driven by a sense of inferiority and the latter superiority.

I think for most peoole social media drives a real desire to be liked, accepted, and admired while the amount of time spent looking at a screen robs a young person the necessary direct social interaction in order to develop adequate social skills, healthy self-concept, and appropriate self-regulatory behavior - in order to get the acceptance they crave.

We have people who may chronically misperceive social cues, over-react with rage when they feel deprived or hurt, and lack the self-regulation that would prevent from reacting with violence. They have been taught by overindulgent parents that the world and other people owe them and they should be rewarded for doing almost nothing.

This is the new normal, and one reason why gun violence is mostly not about guns or mental illness.

 

[TinyBubbles]

I think social media allows an outlet for already existent narcissistic tendencies in people, social media does not directly create narcissism but it does create it by proxy of encouraging it. There are also equal amounts of people that want to look at and watch the narcissistic people even if they are not necessarily narcissistic themselves and it creates a feedback loop, without an audience narcissism would have much less of an appeal and without narcissism there would be less for the watchers to watch.

ya this ^
social media may exacerbate existing narcissistic traits. but i honestly don't think it creates them. also there is the potential for social media to give people a reality check, to destroy the misconceptions they may have about themselves. it really depends on how it's used.

 

[ENFPJohn]

Its not only narcicism thats on the rise with social media. A lot of people get inferiiority complexes from it the other group becomes more entitled.